April 16, 2002	Tuesday	Safar 2, 1423

KARACHI, April 15: Physical business on cotton market on Monday remained modest as spinners continued to lift selected lots, the major thrust being on the fine lots.

However, spinners and mills appear to be in no haste but were willing to pay more a bit little for the quality lots apparently in a bid to cover their forward positions against higher counts of cotton yarn as well as for blending purposes, dealers said.

The interesting feature was that a forward deal for 400 bales was signed by a southern Punjab ginner at Rs1,650 for delivery in the first week of October.

“Punjab grower seems to have joined race with his lower Sindh counterpart for early sowing and early harvesting of cotton crop whether or not the climatic conditions of both the regions may be at variance”, one local broker says.

In the lower Sindh cotton belt, growers start sowing in February and the new crop arrives on the market in late July or early August but it perhaps for the first time that the southern Punjab grower is experimenting with idea of forward sales in the new crop.

But market sources said the rate of Rs1,650 per maund appears to be far below the new crop as compared to lower Sindh new crop, which generally makes debut well above Rs2,000 per maund as it did during the current season, although sowing was late owing to irrigation water shortage.

Floor brokers said spinners opt for forward deals when the current crop is short and there are fears of pressure on supplies and the consequent speculative rise in prices.

“The prevailing cotton situation is quite the contrary as ginners still hold large unsold stocks of the current crop and are seeking official intervention to bail them out from the production glut”, they add.

They said with a relative slowdown on the export front and guarded buying by the TCP and the spinners, ginners seem to be no other option but to indulge in hasty selling to meet their bank demands.

Official spot rates were, therefore, again lowered by Rs25 at Rs1,675 per maund and most of the deals in the ready section were done in line with them.

Ready business remained moderate, although some big-lot deals were reported as leading spinners were after the fine lots. The following are some of the deals, which gone through late on Monday evening: 400 bales, Punjmoro at Rs1,550, 1,000 bales, Bahawalpur at Rs1,675, 1,000 bales, at Rs1,750, 2,000 bales, Ahmedpur East at Rs1,700 and 400 bales, new crop, Rahimyar Khan at Rs1,650 delivery in the first week of October.